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He said: "I was there for about three hours on Sunday. There was a security guard there but he didn't see me. I'm never worried about getting hurt in these places, I really enjoying exploring them."

Robert's pictures show corridors strewn with debris and broken glass windows. In some parts of the complex, moss and grass has even started growing inside.

He works as a builder and previously ventured inside Great Baddow's Marrable House days before it was demolished, as well as the deserted Beehive pub.

By the early 1990s, Severalls Hospital - along with many other mental health hospitals in the UK - had all but closed down, with just one section remaining operational until March 1997 to treat elderly patients suffering the side effects of conditions such as strokes.

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Plans to sell the hospital fell through in 2008, but the site had previously been targeted by vandals, including an arson attack in the main hall.

As well as wards, offices, bedrooms and bathrooms, the former facility included a laundry, a bakery, two on-site farms to provide food, and even equipment to produce electricity to power the entire complex.

Inside the buildings, interlocking corridors connected the maze of rooms, making them easily accessible for doctors at any time.

The hospitals were partly intended to free up workhouse space, but records show that people - particularly women - could be consigned to them on grounds ranging from medical conditions such as epilepsy or depression, to crimes including infanticide and prostitution, and even because they had been victims of rape.